<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Cat and Mouse, Hibari and Tsuna; or, Tsuna Skips School by ekourege</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26211292">Cat and Mouse, Hibari and Tsuna; or, Tsuna Skips School</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ekourege/pseuds/ekourege'>ekourege</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Katekyou Hitman Reborn!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Anvils, Attempt at Humor, Bloodlust, Cheese, Comedy, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hibari is about to snap and it SHOWS, Hibari is fucking FURIOUS, Hibari literally tries to kill Tsuna. it doesn't work, Hijinks &amp; Shenanigans, I was talking about how it was weird Tsuna had managed to skip school so easily pre-canon, I would do a friendship tag for Tsuna and Hibari, Looney Tunes AU, Oblivious Sawada Tsunayoshi, Reborn wants to know what's going on, Sheer unadulterated rage, Tsuna is eerily good at skipping school and it pisses off Hibari to no end, bear traps, because clearly the chasing thing isn't working out, seeing as Hibari was still around. still violent, so does the rest of Namimori, so he gets Creative in his attempts to catch him, that is to say: completely antagonistic, tom and jerry, tom and jerry dynamics, ut what they have going on here is the literal opposite of a frienship, who keep getting caught up in whatever inane bullshit they've got going on THAT week</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:47:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,178</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26211292</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ekourege/pseuds/ekourege</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sawada Tsunayoshi has been successfully skipping school for years. Hibari Kyouya is determined to put a stop to it by any means necessary—even if it means laying traps and digging oddly deep pits.</p><p>Or: Tsuna’s one and only talent is skipping school unscathed, managing to slip away before Hibari can enact even an <i>ounce</i> of divine retribution. Hibari is determined to put an end to it with all the ingenuity he can muster: as well as with this anvil he found.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gokudera Hayato &amp; Sawada Tsunayoshi, Sawada Tsunayoshi &amp; Yamamoto Takeshi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>287</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cat and Mouse, Hibari and Tsuna; or, Tsuna Skips School</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/rathalos/gifts">rathalos</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi all! This is just a silly warm up I did! With inspiration and contributions made by members of my <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fdiscord.gg%2FPnWDekb&amp;t=NjVmMTM2OTczMjA2NTQ1NTI0Zjg4NTg0YzBmZjIzYmJhYzVhODc2YSw4ZGI3YjRjZGI2Y2FlOTU4MjIzYTk2ZWRiN2Y3MGE0MTMxZDYyNWMy&amp;ts=1598865543">KHR chatroom on discord!</a></p><p>It was fun! Also it's hilarious thinking about Hibari seeing Tsuna and just being like <b>(rage)</b> and Tsuna having absolutely no fucking clue. Because of course he doesn't. Whatever is going on with <i>that guy</i> obviously has nothing to do with him.</p><p>
  <a href="https://jaggialliance.tumblr.com/post/627818742423928832/fuck-it-looney-tunes-au">A link to additional art, made by Rathalos!</a>
</p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sawada Tsunayoshi was tired. He’d been up into the early hours of the morning playing video games, determined to defeat a major boss and clear the game before he slept.</p><p>While that in itself wasn’t unusual, it meant his tolerance for harassment was particularly low, and by noon he’d had his fill of school and was ready to high-tail it home. </p><p>He’d had his chair kicked out from under him when he tried to sit down, sending him crashing to the floor while all of his classmates laughed—even Kyoko-chan, which stung more than it normally would have. Not only that! Not even an hour before that, he’d been called on to answer a math question in Nezu’s class and had gotten scolded for it when he said the wrong answer. All in all, a very, <i>very</i> no-good day.</p><p>His mother would scold him for it—again—but all he really had to do was weather it with some humility and escape to his room to hide for the rest of the evening; and, hopefully, if all went well, take a well-earned nap.</p><p>Playing video games was hard work, after all! It didn’t matter that he’d failed that science test with a three, Tsuna felt he deserved <i>some</i> praise for clearing the game! It was an accomplishment, equal to that of some stupid test, right?!</p><p>Surreptitiously, Tsuna raises his hand. He waits, with as much patience as he can muster, for the teacher to call on him. He notices her eyes slide towards him as she scribbles away on the chalkboard, white powder making a slight grinding sound as her hands glide across the board. She ignores him entirely, for a time, and he feels a bit ticked off about that.</p><p>“What, Sawada?” she grumbles eventually, tapping her foot as she half-heartedly glares at him.</p><p>“Can I go to the bathroom?” Tsuna asks sheepishly.</p><p>Her eyes narrow further. “Shouldn’t you have gone before class?”</p><p>“I-I’ve really gotta go! Please?” he whines, near to begging.</p><p>She groans, shaking her head. “Fine. But be quick.”</p><p>She says nothing as Tsuna grabs his things and skitters out the door.</p>
<hr/><p>The school’s prefect, Hibari Kyouya, sits crouched in a tree, form partially obscured by the foliage around him. It was a beautiful day outside, warm and bright, with a gentle breeze blowing soft, fluffy clouds across the sky. The wind runs its fingers through the boy’s hair, tugging the coat draped around his shoulders, causing it to flap lightly. Despite the breeze, the jacket holds firm, and the red armband signifying his place as head of Namimori’s Disciplinary Committee flies proudly—a dash of blood-red among the cool green leaves.</p><p>He’s always been an odd kid, violent and cold towards others, but he’d been acting even stranger than usual lately. </p><p>Seen in strange places, in itself not unusual, like Sawada Tsunayoshi’s dipping habits, but strange in that he seemed more alert than usual. He stalked around campus with particular ferocity, like a Tiger in a cage too small—waiting for the opportunity to lash out. He beat up rule-breakers with particular brutality as if he was making up for something with each punishment.</p><p>Students had witnessed the teenager skulking about, craftily setting up what seemed to be… traps. His grip on the school became iron-clad, crushing the student body in his grasp for almost no reason at all. </p><p>What they did know, though, was that multiple unfortunate individuals had experienced the misfortune of stepping into a booby trap placed somewhere on the grounds, and braving the inevitable fallout of Hibari finding them.</p><p>Namimori hospital had been quite busy lately, though no one could explain <i>why.</i></p><p>The residents of Namimori could only shrug their shoulders. They guessed everyone had their pride, and being head prefect was a part of his.</p><p>That afternoon, held aloft on the branches of a sturdy, mature tree, Hibari Kyouya could be observed peering into the window of one of the classrooms using a pair of binoculars. He’d been there for hours, staring determinedly at that one area, stopping only to pick up and pet a squirrel that had also taken up residence in that particular tree.</p><p>He’s sat on his haunches, crouched in a manner that would be immensely uncomfortable to almost anyone else, but seemed to suit him just fine. A bird chirps, song bright and cheery, and then Hibari is springing into action—the call of a hunt sending him hurtling to the ground and zipping across the courtyard.</p><p><i>This time,</i> Hibari thought, <i>this time he’d bite him to death.</i></p>
<hr/><p>He yawns, big and long, almost tearing up from the force of it. That nap was seeming more and more appealing with every step he took. He was lackadaisically puttering down the hallway, slumped over as he leisurely made for the exit. Softly, straining his arms lightly, Tsuna pushes the doors open and slips through, careful not to let it shut loudly behind him.</p><p>He wouldn’t want to alert any of the teachers and get caught trying to skip, or worse yet, accidentally have the Demon Prefect, Hibari, descend on him like a predator hunting prey.</p><p>He’d only had a singular run-in with the upperclassmen, but it wasn’t an encounter he was willing to repeat.</p><p>It closes with a soft <i>shnick,</i> and Tsuna releases the breath he was holding. Turning, he resumes his walk, staring at his beat-up sneakers.</p><p>God, he was so tired. His legs kind of hurt.</p><p>Tsuna shuffles across the pavement, determined to move one leg at a time until he had made it all the way to his front doorstep.</p><p>One foot, two foot, the soles of his shoes whine as they scuff against the ground and-</p><p>He trips. One of the concrete sections of the pavement was raised just a little too high, and with Tsuna nearly sliding his feet across the ground, knocked his foot into it unexpectedly.</p><p>He really was exhausted, since he hadn’t even noticed it coming.</p><p>Tsuna lurches violently forward, arms pinwheeling backward in a last-ditch attempt to regain his balance and save himself from a particularly nasty fall. It was futile, though, and Tsuna yelps as he tips over, slamming his shoulder into the concrete as the fall knocks the wind out of him. </p><p>He whimpers as he rolls across the pavement, near-limp as he just lets whatever happens, happen. His stuff goes everywhere, his bag not closed fully in his hurry to make his escape, scattering all of its contents around him. </p><p>Tsuna wheezes, huffing a reedy facsimile of a groan. Trembling and curling in on himself as he waits for the stinging ache rattling his bones to pass. This day just kept getting worse, didn’t it?</p><p>Eventually, the pain wracking his body faded into a dull throb, and he slowly pulled himself to his feet, lazily attempting to collect his things. The thought of a nap was the only thing keeping him going, at this point. </p><p>He notices something strange, though. Just a few feet from where he’d landed in his unfortunate fall and subsequent roll down the pavement was a small plate. On that plate, was an assortment of <i>cheese,</i> the fancy kinds Tsuna couldn’t for the life of him put a name to, even with a gun pointed to his head.</p><p>He scratches his chin, kind of perplexed, as he studies the row of cheese plates leading from the edge of the concrete to some nearby bushes.</p><p>“Wonder who that’s for?” Tsuna murmurs to himself, rubbing his now tender shoulder, before shrugging and moving on, now in even more of a hurry to get home. Sure, he was kind of curious, but his body hurt and all he really wanted to do was make it home without any further incident. It was one thing to fail a test on two hours of sleep—another to fall into a wall while trying to cut class.</p><p>He would take a slice, but he was lactose intolerant, and he’d had no clue how long the cheeses had been in the sun that day, so… he wasn’t willing to risk it. He <i>was</i> hungry, but he figured he’d just eat when he got home. Surely, he could get his mom to make him something?</p><p>It was with thoughts of cheese plates and well-earned naps that Tsuna trudges the rest of the way home, stumbling a few times but ending the trip ultimately unbothered.</p>
<hr/><p>The Demon Prefect comes to a halt in front of a line of trees and dense foliage lining one of the farthest sides of campus. In front of him is a row of cheese plates, of varying kinds and sizes, leading to a dense patch of brush. He stalks forward, face tight with anticipation, muscles tense and fingers white from where they’re clamped around his tonfa, ready to bite to death whatever was in the bushes.</p><p>Stiff as a corpse, Kyouya pulls aside the bush closest to him and-</p><p>Nothing. </p><p>The bear trap sat untouched, open jaws glittering in the midday sun.</p><p>Kyouya didn’t think he’d ever truly known fury until that moment, when utter rage washes over him. His vision goes dark, and the heat that rolls over his chest makes him physically growl, face contorting in agonized anger as he tries not to scream. Every kind of anger he’d experienced up until that point paled in comparison to the unadulterated wrath coursing through his veins.</p><p>He shakes violently, quivering, before spinning around and smashing a tonfa into a nearby tree, striking the trunk with such force that it splinters, sending wood chunks flying around him, over him, sticking to his clothes and his hair as he tries to keep himself under control. It creaks violently, protesting the abuse, before lurching over with a solid crash.</p><p>Kyouya exhales, long and deep. He felt a little better now that he’d hit something.</p><p>It hadn’t worked. For sure, this time, Kyouya had thought. <i>This</i> trap would be the one to finally put an end to the farce he’d been enduring for months by that point, and finally, catch the rat once and for all.</p><p>Sawada Tsunayoshi was most akin to a mouse, after all; small, wimpy, mousy-looking, and most of all <i>impossible to catch using normal means.</i></p><p>The rat had been evading him for some time, managing to avoid being bitten to death for breaking the rules of Namimori Middle School by skipping. Even when the prefect gave chase, somehow, some way, the herbivore had managed to avoid him entirely. Sometimes disappearing from under his nose.</p><p>It was infuriating. </p><p>There was a part of him that insisted, with an almost unhinged fury, that he find out where the boy lived and dole out a vicious, instantaneous retribution.</p><p>But <i>that</i> would mean having to admit that he wasn’t skilled enough to catch the fool, wasn’t <i>strong</i> enough to catch a singular, most pathetic <i>herbivore</i> while he was skipping school. And that thought <i>burned,</i> causing every other part of himself to bristle at the thought of damaging his pride and reputation as the head of Namimori’s Disciplinary Committee in that way.</p><p>No, he’d simply have to come up with another tactic, one more effective than the last one.</p><p>With a flourish, Kyouya pulls a small notepad and pen from his pocket, crossing out a line that said <i>“Cheese and bear trap”.</i></p>
<hr/><p>From then on it’s almost a game, one Tsuna is almost blissfully unaware of. Hibari attempts to either capture or murder him through a series of increasingly complicated booby traps—really just depends on how homicidal the prefect is feeling that day—and Tsuna narrowly manages to evade or ignore every. Single. One.</p><p>Hibari goes as far as to try and drop an anvil he’d conveniently located in the sports shed on Tsuna’s head, missing him by a hair. Tsuna had jumped out of his skin, but upon seeing himself unharmed and no one else to be found, simply shrugged once again and scuttled off-campus.</p><p>It wasn’t until the mafia came to town that anything changed.</p><p>Because whereas before Sawada Tsunayoshi had been a lone truant, now he had companions—rule-breaking cohorts determined to send Hibari’s blood pressure through the roof.</p><p>The rat had brought its friends, and those friends were almost born to foil his plans. It made his blood boil.</p><p>“Hibari,” Reborn prompts, almost… confused. He gestures a tiny hand towards the scene in front of him. </p><p>Yamamoto Takeshi, popular among the school’s populace, hung upside down over a deep pit, laughing good-naturedly. Around him, Sawada Tsunayoshi and Italian transfer student Gokudera Hayato tittered and panicked as they attempted fruitlessly to retrieve him. Their yelling was starting to grate on his already sore ears.</p><p>He ignores them, inwardly seething.</p><p>“Baby,” Hibari says back, having no intention of answering any of his questions.</p><p>“What is all of… this?” the baby asks, and Hibari simply huffs, crossing his arms across his traps.</p><p>“Mousetraps,” he says simply, like it was really self-explanatory. The baby looks at him to explain, to elaborate further.</p><p>Hibari Kyouya does not.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! If you want to see more of my content, as well as writing updates, I'm also on Tumblr!</p><ul>
<li><a href="https://ekourege.tumblr.com">Main Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="https://khrmutual.tumblr.com">KHR Blog</a></li>
</ul></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>